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A theatre is producing a play, La Malédiction de Belphégor,
but the real (?) Belphegor - apparently a guy in a gold mask residing in a
high tech hideout - is not very pleased about this, so he vows to kill the
five key persons involved witht he play (Dominique Boschero, Achille
Zavatta, Paul Guers, Marcel Charvey, Maurice Chevit). Of course, they all
initially consider his threats a joke - until the killings start that is,
killings that among other things involve laser beams and the like. Meanwhile
a pretty investigative reporter, Claude (Noelle Noblecourt), and Roger
(Maurice Sarfati), the ward of the playwright (Marcel Charvey) of La Malédiction de Belphégor,
investigate, even manage to find Belphegor's hideout, but despite working
closely with the police, they are eventually captured by the baddie, and
placed in a deathtrap. In the meantime, the number of those on
Belphegor's to-kill-list has gone down to one, dancer Nadia (Dominique
Boschero), and he plans to kill her live on stage ... but the police has
somehow anticipated this move and set a trap for Belphegor. So Nadia is
saved, but Belphegor manages to escape, even if the police and Claude and
Roger, who have just managed to free themselves, are in hot pursuit. It
all ends when Belphegor disappears into a cave and then blows it up. The
end of Belphegor? Nope, he of course manages to escape, with everyone
just thinking him dead. And who is Belphegor? Why the gay
boyfriend of his last victim, the star of the show (Achille Zavatta),
though not the least explanation is given about his motives, and he didn't
really feature prominently in the story so far ...
So ok, you've got a plot with mystery, horror and science
fiction elements all rolled into one, a plot that features elements of Phantom
of the Opera like a haunted theatre and a masked villain,
garnered with futuristic weapons and gadgets - and this is what you get? To
put it into other words, La Malédiction de Belphégor is basically
dead-boring, it's based on a script that's over-convoluted with secondary
characters, veers off into comedy a few times too often, doesn't really
know where to go and how to get there, and when the main villain is
finally revealed, it's without the least rhyme or reason, and not even an
attempt is made to at least explain his motives, origins, or whatever else
could be of assistance to the audience grasping the resolution ...
basically, it's not even explained why the police believe he's dead,
actually. Anyways, all of these narrative shortcomings are probably
explainable with the fact that the producers of La Malédiction de
Belphégor were trying to cash in on the then very successful (yet
unrelated) TV series Belphégor, which might have been broadcast a
couple of years earlier but was still fresh in the audience's minds. So
some narrative shortcuts might have even made sense back in the day - but
even that doesn't excuse that La Malédiction de Belphégor is
basically a pretty dull affair, and definitely not worth your time.
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find The Curse of Belphegor at adultvideouniverse.com
